Tuskegee Declared HBCU National Champions

NEW YORK — 2007 was a great season for head coach Willie Slater and his Golden Tigers of Tuskegee University. En route to their second straight SIAC crown, the undefeated Tigers (12-0) became the first and only HBCU team to reach the 600-win plateau.

In their final game of the season, the Golden Tigers won their third consecutive Pioneer Bowl in a nail-biting 58-51 battle against Virginia Union University to cap their second undefeated season (2000) in the last seven years.

Tuskegee can now add another black college national championship as the Golden Tigers finished atop the final BoxToRow.com/BASN Top 10 HBCU Football Poll. Tuskegee (89 points) received all but one eight of nine first-place votes with second place Delaware State (79 points) receiving the other.

The Hornets (10-2) had their best season in school history which included their first MEAC Championship since 1985 and their first berth into the FCS national playoffs.

DSU is also the third MEAC team to post an 8-0 league record since the conference expanded to nine teams in 1998, joining North Carolina A&T in 1999 and Hampton in 2005.

The rest of the top five includes SWAC champion Jackson State (8-4) at number three, Norfolk State (8-3) at four, and Grambling State (8-4) at number five. JSU got three touchdown passes from Jimmy Oliver in their 42-31 victory over Grambling State in the SWAC title game.

The victory gave Jackson State its 16th SWAC football championship and its first since 1996. It was also the third consecutive loss for Grambling, which had defeated Jackson State, 30-20, during the regular season.

The remainder of the poll has Southern (8-3) at number six, Alabama A&M (8-3) at number seven, Albany State (8-3) at eight, Prairie View A&M (7-3) finishes at number nine, and Virginia Union (9-3) rounds out the poll at tenth.

The seven wins for Henry Frazier’s Panthers marked the most wins by a Prairie View football team since 1964. In fact, PVAMU had a history making campaign, posting a winning season for the first time since 1976.

The BoxToRow.com/BASN HBCU Top 10 Football Poll is a collaboration between two major African-American sports entities, DWCommunications, LLC (the parent company of www.boxtorow.com) and The Black Athlete Sports Network (BASN).

The voters of the weekly poll, which debuted this season, are comprised of some of America’s best writers who cover black college football.